Italy’s former prime minister Silvio Berlusconi, the billionaire media mogul turned trailblazing populist, has died aged 86, marking the end of a controversial career that transformed the country’s politics.
As Italy’s longest-serving post-war prime minister, Berlusconi led the nation through periods of nearly a decade that were marked by criminal investigations into his business dealings and sex scandals.
Even towards the end of his life, he was an active player in Italian politics, playing a key role in the political crisis that brought down former Prime Minister Mario Draghi’s government last summer and then helping to form Giorgia Meloni’s governing coalition.
Berlusconi’s death comes months after it was revealed he had been battling leukemia. He spent more than six weeks in hospital from early April before returning on Friday.
It raises questions about the division of powers in Meloni’s right-wing coalition, as well as the future of his Forza Italia party, given the lack of a clear successor to Berlusconi.
“The party cannot survive the end of Berlusconi,” said political scientist Giovanni Orsina. “This is a party that has always been very personal and very divided.”
Meloni, who rose to Italy’s national political scene as youth minister in Berlusconi’s last government, praised her late mentor as “one of the most influential men in Italian history”.
Matteo Salvini, leader of the hard-right League party – the third member of Meloni’s coalition – said he had lost a “great friend”.
Foreign Minister Antonio Tajani, a longtime ally who was put in charge of Forza Italia during Berlusconi’s recent hospital stay, said on Twitter that he felt “immense sadness” and thanked the departed leader.
Berlusconi’s political style has provided a template for other populist politicians, including former US President Donald Trump and former Thai Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra.
“He Americanized Italian politics,” said Roberto D’Alimonte, a professor of political science at Louis University in Rome. “He uses marketing techniques to sell his product across ideological lines.”
Although Berlusconi’s personal brand has waned in recent years, his political legacy lives on in Meloni’s right-wing coalition, whose three constituent parties he first brought together when he first entered politics.
“He is the man who united the Italian right, made it acceptable and competitive,” D’Alimonte said. “That’s his historical legacy.”
Berlusconi began his career as a real estate developer before turning to broadcasting in the 1970s, building a monopoly in private television.
He entered the political scene in 1994 at the age of 57, by which time he was well known as the shrewd owner of a powerful entertainment empire – and Italy’s richest man. He continued to shape Italian politics with his right-wing Forza Italia, which he built using his personal fortune and the apparatus of his vast entertainment empire.
Berlusconi’s years in power have been marred by multiple criminal investigations into allegations of wrongdoing that ranged from false accounting to bribery and illegal political financing.
His “bunga bunga” sex parties and prosecution on charges of paying a teenage belly dancer for sex also tarnished his last term, despite his eventual acquittal.
Berlusconi was forced out of power in 2011 at the height of the eurozone sovereign debt crisis, when markets and European partners saw the then-discredited leader as a liability who had failed to restore market confidence.
Although he remained a senator, a conviction for tax fraud in 2013 saw him expelled from the Senate and barred from holding public office until 2018. However, he returned to the Senate after last year’s general election and campaigned alongside Meloni as one of the trio of leaders in her right-wing coalition.
His long-standing friendship with Russian President Vladimir Putin proved a liability for Meloni’s government: Berlusconi publicly expressed his admiration for the Russian leader at a time when she was trying to convince allies of Italy’s commitment to Kiev in its defense against Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine .
In an unusually emotional letter of condolence, Putin described Berlusconi as a “true patriot” who is “deservedly considered the patriarch of Italian politics” and will be remembered in Russia for bringing the two countries closer together.
“For me, Silvio was a dear and true friend,” Putin wrote. “I have always sincerely admired his wisdom. . . During each of our meetings, I was literally energized by his incredible life energy, his optimism and his sense of humor.”
There was a reaction from other parts of the world.
Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán shared a photo of himself with Berlusconi, saying “the great fighter is gone”, while Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said he was “a great friend of Israel and was by our side all the time”.
Tony Blair, the former UK prime minister, described him as “capable, insightful and most importantly, true to his word”, recalling his “personal support” for the UK’s bid for the 2005 Olympics.
Additional reporting by Giuliana Ricozzi in Rome and Max Seddon in Riga